Leaving America

Customs, twice in one day! On the way out of Big Bend National Park, you get the park guys with customs agents who want to know if you bought anything or visited Mexico. It wouldn’t be hard, actually, the Rio Grand borders the park and there is very little in the way of barricades to stop you from wading on over. Because we have the plastic cover over the bed of the Silverado, they wanted to check inside. Interesting case — customs and border enforcement agents don’t need probable cause to search your vehicle; or a warrant. Of course, we had nothing, so we let them.

Big Bend National Park

“It’s not the destination that is important, it’s the trip.”

I believe that. Now Alex and I, after only a couple of days, have changed our itinerary to take advantage of it. As Alex said, “When am I ever going to be in this part of the world again?”

Busted at the US Border Crossing

Well, the smuggling operation was a success, but not without some problems. I went across the Ambassador Bridge from Windsor into Detroit. That has its own kind of nightmare — my Beretta started overheating on the downside of the bridge. The Ambassador Bridge makes a huge arc across and the traffic had my car idling for about 10 minutes as I got to the down slope of the arc. So I cut the engine off and coasted slowly forward. Naturally, I had trouble restarting it as I got to the actual customs booths.

Dog Problems

Let me introduce you to Bruno.

Bruno is a two year old Great Dane. His golden brown shade is called ‘fawn’. And he is just as big as you might imagine.Bruno is gentle and lovable and loyal and, well… a bit on the stupid side. This isn’t a dog that is going to save Timmy from the well.